Typhus renews expeditions

Following their retreat from the walls of Sein Craban the standing armies of the Typhurian Enclave had been devastated and scattered. Typhus had emptied Boiling Peak of its garrison to secure his advance on the Elven colony and their loss left him in a perilously weak position.

When patrols around Boiling Peak captured a number of skink spies from the empire of Cuitlaxaochitzin, Typhus feared the weakness of the Enclave had become known. Realising he had to demonstrate his empire's continued strength and resolve beyond doubt or risk invasion, Typhus ordered the agents brutally killed before scraping together what forces he could to launch a punitive retaliatory raid against the Lizardmen. Typhus' small army made landfall under cover of night from their airships and marched directly towards the port of Tacapantzin. Completely surprised by this unexpected aggression the Lizardmen rushed their troops to stall Typhus' advance and buy time to prepare a proper defence of the port.

Finding his path blocked in a narrow pass Typhus himself opened the hostilities, blasting the elite Temple Guard forming the core of the enemy host out of existence with his deadly sorcery. Facing annihilation under a deadly bombardment of poisoned gas the Lizardmen were forced to leave their defensive positions and rush forwards to engage the Skaven. The fighting was exceptionally brutal and bloody and the Skaven were fought to a standstill. Typhus himself was forced to teleport himself back to the fleet when a rampaging Stegadon threatened to trample him in its blind rage. Eventually however the shattered Lizardmen withdrew, hoping they had bought sufficient time to mobilise enough troops to mount a defence of Tacapantzin. The attack never happened. Their victory won and statement made, the Skaven hordes retreated to their fleet and departed back to Boiling Peak. Unknown to his enemies, the small advance guard that had clashed with the Lizardmen had been all that Typhus could throw together and had never posed any threat to the well defended port.

Following their successful raid the fortunes of the Enclave rapidly improved. Typhus established a new city in the south of his realm. Overshadowed by a mighty extinct volcano, Widows Peak would provide a southern base for the large Skaven fleet and allow them to better control the straits between the Great Rhun Sea and the Pan Coron Ocean. The privateer fleets of the hated Elves of Mellvellon now ran even greater risk of interception if they wanted to hunt in the eastern seas.

The Enclave's fortunes were to wax once again when a delegation from the Kaalroen Empire came to Typhus with an offer of trade. The delegation had initially been ambushed by the alert and paranoid Skaven. It was only after his warriors had been slaughtered and his elite household cavalry were surrounded on all sides that the leader of the delegation succeeded in communicating his wish to parley. Typhus received the Kaalroen's ambassador at a specially orchestrated ceremony at Boiling Peak. Newly raised and equipped legions of troops, paid for with loans from the Warpclaw Guild, marched past in a never ending stream. Elder Dažbog of the Domovoi seemed impressed with the military might of the Enclave although in truth Typhus' army was still small. The ignorant Kaalroens couldn't tell one skaven from another and seemed oblivious that they were in fact watching the same regiments march past them repeatedly, each block of troops rejoining the start of the march once they were safely out of sight of the Kaalroens.

Elder Dažbog was keen to secure Typhus' aid and support against mutual enemies. He showered Typhus with extravagant gifts and even more extravagant flattery, offering to support the Enclave with regular shipments of warpstone and war materials provided Typhus would commit to making war on their mutual foe.

The Enclave, which had been weak and destitute only a few years earlier, was once more strong. Fresh warpstone was being manifested in the giant magical condensers at Boiling Peak to feed the wheels of Skaven industry. As they returned to report their success to the Domovoi Pantheon, the Kaalroen delegation sailed past the island fortress of Tyrant's Gate, a fortress that had not been there when they had passed the island on their way to Boiling Peak.